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USHL Muskegon Lumberjacks

Strong Effort From Jacks but Fall Short 5-4 in Youngstown

February 22, 2025 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release


YOUNGSTOWN, OH - Despite falling 4-0 in the early part of the game the Muskegon Lumberjacks (26-12-3-4, 59 pts.) kept grinding away at the game and worked on a comeback before eventually falling 5-4 to the Youngstown Phantoms (29-15-0-1, 57 pts.)

Before any shots were fired on net the captains dropped the gloves in a fight that surely came from the action the night before. In total there were three fights in the first period. David Klee (Castle Rock, CO) across from Coleson Hanrahan was the first before Matthew Van Blaricom (Southey, SK, CAN) went at it with Kazimier Sobieski about 5 minutes later. Before the end of the period David Deputy (Gurnee, IL) found himself across from Landan Resendes.

On the score sheet 3 was the magic number as well, though all three belonged to the Phantoms. Michael Mesic scored the first at the 9:01 mark while Jack Hextall scored just after the end of a Jacks penalty kill to make it 2-0 14:43 into the game. Matti Butkovskiy added the third goal with just :5 seconds to go in the period to give Youngstown a commanding lead heading into the first intermission.

Youngstown opened the scoring in the second period to take a 4-0 lead 5:56 into the frame. Adam Benak picked up his second point of the night when he intercepted a pass in the Lumberjacks zone and had an empty net to shoot at from the near side wall.

Before the end of the period the Lumberjacks found the back of the net to start a comeback effort. Tynan Lawrence (Fredericton, NB, CAN) made his way towards the net and fired a shot from a tough angle to the back of the net with :49 seconds left in the period. Deputy and Klee picked up the assists on the goal bringing the score to 4-1.

The comeback was on in the third period and continued to make ground with a power play goal 7:23 into the frame. Klee won a faceoff on the far side of the Youngstown zone back to Luka Radivojevic (Trencin, SVK) at the blue line. Radivojevic fired a shot towards the net that Klee redirected by the netminder to give him a Gordie Howe Hattrick and bring the game to within a pair of goals.

Overall the Jacks powerplay went 2/3 (66.6%) while the penalty kill was a perfect 5/5 on the night. Over the weekend series the special teams battle went the way of Muskegon with a 3/6 (50%) success rate on the power play and a 10/11 (90.9%) rate on the penalty kill.

Youngstown found the back of an empty net in the final two minutes to extend the lead back to 3 goals, but Drew Stewart (Minnetonka, MN) helped lead the team back within contention. Stewart scored with :44 seconds to play to make it interesting before adding another with :10 seconds left to bring the score back to within a single goal.

In the end the Phantoms held on to their lead and picked up the 5-4 win. Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (Makhachkala, RUS) (14-8-1-1) earned the loss with 22 saves on 24 shots. Stephen Peck (New York, NY) played just under 12 minutes in the first period with 5 saves on 7 shots. Melvin Strahl (22-10-0-0) earned the win, but allowed 4 goals on 16 shots in the process.

Next week the Jacks welcome the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders to Trinity Health Arena for a two-game series. Friday night at 7 p.m. is Jacks Fight Cancer Night while Saturday at 6 p.m. the Jacks take to the ice wearing special Beach Night jerseys which will be auctioned off following the end of the game. Tickets and more information can be found at muskegonlumberjacks.com.

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